Men of letters who happen to have genius do not write for men of letters. They write, as Wagner was proud to say he composed, for the ordinary person.
Twenty
Great success never depends on the practice of the humbler virtues, though it may occasionally depend on the practice of the prouder vices.
Twenty-one
“I’ve been to the National Gallery twice, and, upon my word, I was almost the only person there! And it’s free, too! People don’t want picture-galleries. If they did, they’d go. Who ever saw a public-house empty, or Peter Robinson’s? And you have to pay there!”
Twenty-two
He who has not been “presented to the freedom” of literature has not wakened up out of his prenatal sleep. He is merely not born. He can’t see; he can’t hear; he can’t feel in any full sense. He can only eat his dinner.
Twenty-three
All the arts are a conventionalisation, an ordering of nature.